Cairnes

Cairnes, JOHN ELLIOT, economist, was born in County Louth, Ireland, 26th December 1823. His father was a brewer, and as the son showed no aptitude for such learning as his teachers offered him, he was placed in the brewery. After a time, however, young Cairnes began to entertain a liking for intellectual pursuits, and, much against his father's will, went to Trinity College, Dublin, where he graduated B.A. in 1848. In 1856 he was appointed Whately professor of Political Economy at Dublin, the first-fruits of this office being his Character and Logical Method of Political Economy (1857). In 1859 he was elected to the chair of Political Economy and Jurisprudence in Queen's College, Galway. He published in 1862 his book on the Slave Power, which made a profound impression. In 1866 he was called to the chair of Political Economy in University College, London. He published his Essays on Political Economy, Theoretical and Applied in 1873, and in 1874 Some Leading Principles of Political Economy newly Expounded. An accident in the hunting-field in 1860 led to a breakdown in health, from which he never quite recovered, and the later years of his life were clouded with suffering, which he bore with patience, nor did it prevent him taking a lively interest in the affairs of the day. He died 8th July 1875. As an economist, Cairnes may be regarded as a disciple of Mill, but his adhesion was that of a powerful and independent thinker, whose opinions were the result of his own research. He elucidated with great clearness, grasp, and philosophic comprehensiveness many of the most important and difficult problems in political economy. He is second only to Mill among recent English economists.